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(Washington)

Biden’s big ‘death tax’ has been spooking advisors and their wealthy clients for months now, and there are very major concerns over if and when it will be implemented. Well we have good news and bad news today. The good news is that both the House Democrats and the Ways and Means commission have put forth proposals with significantly lower tax rates than Biden’s initial budget. The House Democrats, for instance, would keep all-in capital gains taxes at a max of around 28.8% (counting the surtax). The bad news is that a recent adoption by the Ways and Means Commission puts the cutoff date for any company sales that would be affected by Biden’s much bigger capital gains taxes as Sept 13th (for sales with a binding contract prior to that date).


FINSUM: Overall, the direction of the proposals is getting more favorable for the HNW community, but there is still a LONG way to go.

Monday, 04 October 2021 14:54

The Best Retirement Income Strategies

(New York)

Most advisors know and respect Wade Pfau, a retirement guru in our space. Well Wade has just offered a new take on annuities as part of a broader conversation on retirement income strategies. According to Pfau, “Annuities deserve an equal seat at the table with any other retirement income strategy … The whole idea that annuities mean giving up something is not true”. Pfau says that understanding a client’s retirement income preferences is key. For example, the total return approach is not for everyone, and the peace of mind of guaranteed income can be a big winner for certain clients.


FINSUM: Pfau’s one-size-does-not-fit-all view is a very apt one and it highlights how annuities could be the bedrock of a strategy for one client, and completely absent for another, with the majority being somewhere in between.

Monday, 04 October 2021 14:53

Best Models Ranked, 1-5

(New York)

Morningstar has become a leader in model coverage. The firm covers several hundred models and gives each multiple ratings. As the model world continues to grow, this is getting more and more useful. Here is our third installment of our coverage of Morningstar’s rankings, with the top 5 covered. The rankings: #5 is American Funds Growth (silver rating); #4 is American Funds Growth & Income (silver); #3 is American Funds Income; #2 is Vanguard Core (gold); and #1 is BlackRock Target Allocation ETF (gold).


FINSUM: There is a pretty low diversity of providers in the top 15, but this speaks to the expertise a handful of firms have developed in this space.

Friday, 01 October 2021 21:03

Dispelling Common ESG Myths

Responsible investors have long believed that investing with embedded consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is a compelling approach to identify investment opportunities: well-run, thoughtfully managed companies built for the long term, ready to foster societal transition and dynamically adapt to our rapidly changing world. This belief is simple enough to justify: identification, application, and integration of ESG risks and opportunities can provide investors with additional, independently derived insight into a company’s management quality, strategic positioning, operational efficiency, and potential risk exposure.

The broader investment community has caught on. In 2020, ESG funds saw greater inflows than in any year prior, a nearly 140% increase over 2019 and nearly ten times greater than in 2018. Corporations have responded to this shift, with a record number of companies appointing their first Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) in 2020, a year that saw more CSOs recruited than in the previous three years combined. 

SUSTAINABLE FUND ANNUAL FLOWS AND ASSETS

AMGchart1

Source: Morningstar. Data as of 12/31/2020
Includes Sustainable Funds as defined in Sustainable Funds U.S. Landscape Report, Feb. 2020.
Includes funds that have been liquidated, does not include funds of funds.

The transformative potential in the hands of ESG investors has grown by orders of magnitude. This exponential growth has brought an increasingly crowded field with a variety of approaches to ESG, creating ambiguity in the marketplace over what it means to be intentional as an impact investor. An authentic, intentional, and holistic approach relies on aligning active ownership strategies (e.g., shareholder resolutions, public policy participation, voting proxies) with stated investment goals, an ESG-led research process, and impact-oriented themes and targets.

Dispelling a Persistent Myth

There has been a widespread misconception among investors that ESG factors are non-financial. This is not entirely accurate. ESG factors can instead represent unpriced externalities and unmanaged risks that are uncorrelated with traditional financial metrics. By incorporating ESG factors into security analysis, investors can identify a host of material issues core to business fundamentals, enhancing the ability to recognize patterns that are not already priced in.

In addition to risk-mitigation, businesses that proactively accelerate the adoption of positive ESG practices and the development of solutions-oriented products have a unique opportunity to exceed revenue expectations and thus be rewarded with higher ratings over time. These companies may see an improving competitive position versus peers, while those that are on the wrong side of this transition may see changes in their cost of capital and an accompanying deterioration in their competitive position. Investing in the transition to a more just, sustainable world gives investors access to solutions-fixed revenue streams while altering the trajectory on climate action and racial equity among a host of other vital issues.

Identifying strong business fundamentals and ESG process leadership — underpinned by the belief that businesses with forward-thinking managements are higher quality — combined with insights gained from global, proactive, and sustained shareowner engagement can together form a positive feedback loop for better investment decision-making. Managers with the knowledge and experience to employ this holistic approach understand the need to incorporate the product dimension into impact and support companies whose products and services are solutions for societal, environmental, and human rights problems.

ACTIVE OWNERSHIP STRATEGIES

AMGchart2

The Way Forward

We are at an inflection point where ESG is transitioning from niche to mainstream. True to the original spirit of the movement, we should hope not to build a new investment establishment in the image of the old, but instead to forge a dynamic, holistic, evolved approach, generating positive impacts by holding companies accountable as stewards of people and planet. As investors, holding ourselves to the same high standards we demand of portfolio companies will go a long way toward making these impacts sustainable.

We hope that you will join us on the journey.

 

By Liz Su, CFA and Kevin Hart, CIMA of Boston Common Asset Management


Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.

This does not constitute investment advice or an investment recommendation.

This represents the views and opinions of Boston Common Asset Management.  It does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any security and is subject to change at any time due to changes in market or economic conditions. The comments should not be construed as a recommendation of individual holdings or market sectors, but as an illustration of broader themes.

Applying ESG investment criteria to investments may result in the selection or exclusion of securities of certain issuers for reasons other than performance, and may underperform investments that do not utilize an ESG investment strategy. The application of an ESG strategy may affect an investment's exposure to certain companies, sectors, regions, countries or types of investments, which could negatively impact performance depending on whether such investments are in or out of favor. Applying ESG criteria to investment decisions is qualitative and subjective by nature, and there is no guarantee that the criteria utilized or any judgment exercised by an investment manager will reflect the beliefs or values of any particular investor.​

AMG Funds LLC (“AMG Funds”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary and U.S. retail distribution arm of AMG. AMG Funds offers long-term investment strategies through a unique platform that includes a family of funds and separate accounts managed by a selection of AMG's investment managers.

N.B. This is sponsored content and not FINSUM editorial.

Wednesday, 29 September 2021 17:57

SEC Puts Out Big Warning to Advisors on Reg BI

(Washington)

The SEC just put out a shot across the bow of brokerage firms as it regards Reg BI. Firms and industry attorneys have been expecting the SEC to ratchet up enforcement over the coming year as the agency starts to bring Biden’s priorities into reality. However, the SEC made it very clear this week, telling firms that it is not enough to tell reps what Reg BI says, but educate them with examples of how to meet Reg BI’s requirements. Investment News summarized the SEC’s comments this way, saying “Financial firms that are failing to comply with the broker standard of conduct aren’t aligning their internal controls to meet its requirements”. The SEC is now checking to see if firms have set up a robust Reg BI compliance program, and if not, they will be in hot water”. According to Corey Schuster, assistant director of Division of Enforcement’s asset management unit, “firms may want to consider: Have you done a deep dive on conflicts? … Have you examined your disclosures regarding conflicts? And is there a need to mitigate certain conflicts of interest?”.


FINSUM: The SEC is gearing up to drop the hammer on Reg BI enforcement, which has long been expected. However, the reality of heavier enforcement and the specifics of how it is executed are very different than seemingly far-off expectations.

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